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Monday Music 5 – 2018

This is the last of these posts that I’m going to dedicate to my favourite bands for the time being. I’m going to move back to doing a particular piece of music each week. The last entry I’m going to do isn’t actually a band at all. I’m going back to the USA to talk about my favourite singer/songwriter…

Jackson Browne

I found Jackson Browne off the back of listening to the Eagles when I was in my early teenage years. After hearing a couple of his albums, I fell in love with his sound and especially his lyrics which can be wonderfully poetic. He’s an artist who’s been recording since the 1970’s and through the 80’s but I didn’t know much so I thought that would be it and I wouldn’t get any new music from him. How wrong I was! In 1993, after a four year break, he released a new album, I’m Alive. I loved that album and it prompted me to go see him in concert at the Royal Albert Hall. He did a really great set that night, featuring so many of his best songs and seeming to go on forever so that I didn’t want it to end. That is up there among my favourite live performances. Since then, I’ve seen him two or three more times at the same venue and he’s always great value. To hear him alone on the piano, playing For a Dancer live is something that gives me goosebumps every time. Apart from his great music, he’s also heavily involved in environmentalist concerns and does a lot of work in that area.

I mentioned his lyrics – my favourites of his are in that song – a kind of mantra I repeat to myself sometimes when I feel down.

Perhaps a better world is drawing nearAnd just as easily, it could all disappearAlong with whatever meaning you might have foundDon’t let the uncertainty turn you around(The world keeps turning around and around)Go on and make a joyful sound

Into a dancer you have grownFrom a seed somebody else has thrownGo on ahead and throw some seeds of your ownAnd somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you goMay lie a reason you were alive but you’ll never know.

When the time comes for me to depart, I’d like that song played at my funeral. Here it is, along with some more of my favourites from his extensive back catalogue.

Hope you enjoyed that. I’ll be back next week something from somewhere else.

Thanks for reading and listening.

If you feel like some more music, then please check out some of my other Monday Music posts. They’re packed with great examples of music from movies, TV and other places.